I am Director of the Swedish International Center of Education for Sustainable Development, SWEDESD, at the Faculty of Educational Sciences at UU, and Adjunct Professor at the Sustainability Research Center, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. My publications are currently not fully updated to DIVA, but you find them at the bottom of the biography.

Research interests and short biography

I am an intellectual historian and an ecological economist, with an interest in theories of science, discourses, the power of language, and ecological economic theory development. I am deeply engaged in inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability studies towards the long-term objective of ecological sustainability and global equity. Since recently, I'm also devoting myself to theories of learning, and the global issues of ESD capacity, policy and research.

I have been at various universities during my career. I studied economics at Luleå Technical University in 1987, but thought the basic assumptions in neoclassical economics were narrow and reductionist. I took my bachelor’s degree there, and then worked for a couple of years at the university. In 1993 I started studying intellectual history and human ecology at Umeå University, and my PhD thesis in intellectual history (No Limits, 2002) focus on the discourse of unlimited economic growth.

During my PhD studies, from 1996 to 2002, I also taught intellectual history, environmental history, and human ecology, edited books, as well as organized PhD and research conferences. In the fall of 1997 I was granted a scholarship to go to the Energy and Resource Group at University of California at Berkeley, where I worked with Richard B Norgaard as co-supervisor and Carolyn Merchant as main lecturer.

A couple of years before my PhD thesis defense, I was thrilled to be invited to teach ecological economics at Mälardalen University, and after my defense I was employed there as senior lecturer in ecological economics, as well as the head of the ecological economics unit. In 2002 I gave birth to my daughter and went on maternal leave for a couple of years. After continuing as senior lecturer in ecological economics, I took on the position as director of the Centre for Environment and Development (Cemus) at Uppsala University and SLU Uppsala.

The Uppsala Center for Sustainable Development (CSD Uppsala) was inaugurated in 2007, and Cemus was organized as part of that larger center, and I took on the position as director for CSD Uppsala. During the years of 2008-2014 I had different positions at CSD Uppsala: as director, as program director, and as researcher and research coordinator. Apart from the leadership positions, I was teaching and supervising students and PhD students, and did other strategic work with courses and programs during that time, as well as published articles, edited a few books, and organized research conferences. And as to research at CSD Uppsala, our most comprehensive project was the 10-researcher 4-year “Sustainable Global Patterns of Production and Consumption” one, financed by The Swedish Research Council, VR.

Since November 2014, I am the director of the Swedish International Center of Education for Sustainable development (SWEDESD) at Campus Gotland and Blåsenhus Uppsala, and since June 2016 Adjunct Professor at the Sustainability Research Center at University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia.

Finnveden, Göran, Eva Friman et al., “Evaluation of integration of sustainable development in higher education in Sweden”, 4th World Symposium on Sustainable Development at Universities (WSSD-U-2018) – Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development: Supporting the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Paper accepted to be presented at Universiti Sans Malaysia (USM), Penang, Malaysia, August 2018, forthcoming.

Friman, Eva, “Ecological Sustainability and Equity within the Discourse and Practice of Capitalist Global Exchange? Conservation Policy and Small-scale Fishers Bread”. NIES international research conference. Reykjavik and Höfn, Iceland, 2011.

Gallardo, Gloria and Eva Friman, “New marine commons along the Chilean coast – Disparate outcomes in the Peñuelas and Chigualoco’s management areas (MAs)”. The IASC North American Regional Meeting Capturing the Complexity of the Commons. Arizona, USA. 2010.

Alarcón, Cristián, Eva Friman et al., “Sustainable Global Patterns of Production and Consumption: Current Problems and Future Possibilities”, Proceedings of the 2nd VHU Conference on Science for Sustainable Development, 2007, Science for Sustainable development? The social challenge with emphasis on the conditions for change. Linköping: Linköping University, 2008.

Friman, Eva, ”The Economy as Subsystem or Autonomous: Economists on Growth and Sustainability 1987-1997”. Towards A Sustainable Society in the New Millennium. NESS International Research Conference, Umeå, 1999.

Friman, Eva and Flora Hajdu, ”Neoliberal Interventions in Subsistance Farming: Stakeholder Report from the GloPat Research Project”. Summary report presented and discussed at participatory conference with all involved respondents, actors and stakeholders, South Africa, 2011.

Friman, Eva, ”Common Obstacles when Working in Transdisciplinary Research Groups, and How to Overcome them”. NIES International Symposium and Researcher Training Course, the Sigtuna Foundation, Sweden, 2010.

Friman, Eva and Gloria Gallardo, “El Área de Manejo de Chigualoco: Particularidades y Resumen” and “El Area de Manejo de Peñuelas: Particularidades y Resumen”. Posters presented and discussed in participatory workshops with and for the respondent small-scale fishers in Chile, 2010.